Supercharged quartet
Garth Wilshere

31/08/2011 9:22:00 a.m.

Wellington Chamber Music – SundayConcerts, String Sextet Spectacular, Ilott Theatre August 28. Reviewed by Garth Wilshere

This was a rare opportunity to hear three String Sextets courtesy of the Aroha Quartet (Haihong Liu & Beiyi Xue (violins), Zhongxian Jin (viola) & Robert Ibell (cello) joined by NZSO players Lyndon Johnson Taylor on viola and Rowan Prior on cello. The sound was rather like a supercharged String Quartet with extra lower range tonal weight.

The Dvorak String Sextet in A, Op 48 was certainly recognisable Dvorak but perhaps a little more “raw” and “folksy” with dance rhythms given its compositional proximity to his Slavonic Rhapsodies and Slavonic Dances so was melodic but also had strong rhythmic pulse.
The less well-known Erwin Schulhoff String Sextet was an interesting discovery. A Czech in the German avant-garde, left-wing movement in the 1920s and 1930s, later persecuted, and imprisoned in 1939.

The music for this sextet heavily reflects on and is influenced by his experiences in the Great War. It is often harsh and harrowing but deeply affecting, from its resolute expressionist Allegro, through the gentler more dreamy reflective Tranquillo (Andante) movement, through to the percussive, vital, strong Slavish Burlesca, with ghostly echoes in the Molto Adagio finale. A very committed, persuasive performance.

The most recognisable piece, Brahm’s String Sextet No, 2 in G Op. 36, had the power and melodic sweep expected in a lovely, but slightly gritty and powerful, rather than mellow performance that I enjoyed.

Good on their enterprise in choosing some unusual, and especially string sextet repertoire.